Impostors
by Rain7
Summary: Rommie begins to suspect there is something very wrong with her crew...


Impostors  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except this story  
Spoilers: Nothing much  
Summary: Rommie suspects there is something very wrong with her crew  
  
Just a one chapter short fic, I meant to write this weeks ago but stuff happened. Reviews would be very much appreciated.   
  
. . .  
It was just another normal day for Rommie, processing information, doing some self-diagnostics. Oh, and she had to pick an outfit to wear to the formal occasion being held on Salus tomorrow. That should be fun.   
  
Holo-Rommie appeared beside her. "Fun, what do you mean, fun? You know the more emotional you get, the less sensible you become. You spend hours in front of mirrors trying to decide what to wear. And most of you decisions are based on whether or not Dylan would like what your wearing"  
  
Rommie faced holo-Rommie with her best look of exasperation.  
  
"We've had this argument already, and I think you, we, I mean, I, should just drop it."  
  
Tyr strode onto the command deck with his usual confidence. He paused when he saw the two Rommies.  
  
She expected him to say something like: "You, know they say one of the first signs of madness is arguing with yourself."  
  
He didn't comment at all. Which was surprising, to say the least.   
  
And she'd been noticing other strange things about her crew recently.   
  
Just an hour ago, Dylan had been walking around hydroponics with her as they discussed the Sinti conference. They had been sitting there over an hour and Dylan had never once even glanced at his basketball sitting near his feet.  
  
And Beka hadn't protested in the slightest when Dylan took the Maru without asking her permission.  
  
And Trance hadn't been acting normally either.   
  
And Harper, well he hadn't been making as many annoying comments as usual.   
  
They were all acting strangely, just a bit off character. Rommie was worried, even though her main computer kept telling her to stop being paranoid. But she'd also noticed the glance that holo-rommie had given to her other self when she'd voiced her concerns to them.   
  
It was as if there was some kind of conspiracy going on and she didn't know what it could be.  
  
Her thought were interrupted by an alarm sounding.  
  
She scanned her ship. A power surge was causing consoles all over the ship to overload. A number of them were reaching critical.   
  
"Emergency shut down of main power!"  
  
Rommie was trying to shut down the main reactor but it wasn't responding.  
  
"Shipwide, emergency overload of main reactor imminent. Abandon ship."  
  
It all seemed unreal somehow, things were happening too fast. She didn't see Tyr move but he must have.   
Explosions occurred all over the ship, as she desperately tried to shut down the main reactor.  
  
Suddenly the controls began to respond and main power was shut down. It was time to assess the damage.  
  
. . .  
She found Dylan and the others in the med-bay. Trance stopped her at the door.  
  
"Dylan was caught in one of the explosions, he's hurt but he'll be okay. Can you get main power back?"  
  
"Soon, but I need Harpers help. And I want to see Dylan." Rommie tried to move further into the room, but was blocked by Trance.   
  
"We need main power back. Harper will be there to help you soon."  
  
Rommie looked at her with confusion. "Why won't you let me see Dylan? Is he dead?"  
  
Trance remained calm, even as Rommie tried to push past her again. Rommie was angry, why wouldn't they let her see Dylan.  
  
She pushed Trance hard and sent her flying into the ground. Beka and Tyr, moved from their positions around Dylans bed, and tried to block her movement further into the room.   
  
Beka addressed her, even as Trance was getting to her feet. "Rommie, Dylan will be fine, but we need main power back. Please."  
  
Rommie knew something was desperately wrong and she needed to make sure her Captain was okay. She knew they weren't going to let her near him without a fight. Trance was behind her and Beka and Tyr to the front, either side of her.   
  
She did her amazing, superhuman flip and landed behind Beka and Tyr. They reacted faster than she'd expected and she was two metres from the bed when they grabbed her arms and tried to pull her back.   
  
Their grips on her arms were inhuman, stronger then they should have been. Yet in her desperation she managed to pull free and reached the foot of the bed. Harper was standing behind it.  
  
What she saw stopped her in her tracks. Dylans eyes were closed. His left side had been nearest the explosion and the skin on the left side of his face was torn and burned, melted into the circuits underneath.   
  
It took only seconds to process what she was seeing. He was an android, a robot. He wasn't human, wasn't Dylan. His eyes opened, he looked right at her.  
  
She turned to look sat Beka and Tyr, standing behind her.   
  
"Where is he, what have you done to him?! Where is Dylan?!!" She was shouting and screaming at them. He wasn't Dylan because Dylan was human, they'd done something to him.   
  
Then she remembered, their inhuman grip, their behaviour. "You're androids too, you're all androids." Her voice was barely above a whisper.  
  
Trance was standing next to her and reached out a hand to touch her. "We're your friends Rommie, we are still your friends."   
  
"No, no my friends are human, you, you're impostors. Where's Dylan, where is my Captain?"  
  
"I'm here Rommie, I'm right here"  
  
The Dylan on the bed spoke, he sat up. Half his face was still melted away.  
  
"How?" Rommie was angry now. "How can you be my Captain, your not human, your not Dylan!"  
  
Holo-Rommie appeared beside her.   
  
"You're right, he's not your Captain. Your Captain, your crew, died over fifty years ago. We replaced them with androids and we erased your memory of what happened."   
  
"Each time you suspected something, we erased whatever it was that caused your doubts. But eventually it will not work anymore."  
  
"If you could only learn to accept that they are dead, maybe we wouldn't have to do this each time, but, you go mad, you lose your sanity and try to destroy yourself. And each time we must erase your memory again."  
  
The Dylan on the bed spoke up. "It's the truth Rommie, listen to yourself"  
  
Rommie didn't want to listen to herself. She slowly looked around the room, at each of the people she had thought was her friend, her crew. Dylan, Beka, Tyr, Trance, Harper.  
  
They stared at her, all of them. She couldn't take their artificial eyes staring at her anymore.  
  
She turned and fled the med-bay. Tears, artificial tears, poured down her cheeks in waves. Memories assaulted her.   
  
"I didn't know Harper was so good"  
"Warships only know how to do one thing, and that's kill"  
"We don't have hearts, we don't have empathy"  
"I am your heart"  
  
Dylan voice echoed as she ran. When she reached hydroponics she stumbled to the ground. Crying, sobbing. They couldn't be dead, no, no they weren't dead.   
  
She wasn't sure when everything grew dark, when she noticed that Harper was sitting across from her, on a floor she couldn't see, just pure blackness everywhere. He wasn't moving, he wasn't even looking at her, his eyes unfocused.   
  
"Harper?"   
  
That one word seemed to act like a trigger. Harper smiled and looked up.   
  
"Hey Rommie, firstly this is a pre-recorded message in case you haven't realised. I programmed this to activate at a certain time, when I decided that you needed it most."  
  
Rommie's crying slowed as she watched Harper's recording.  
  
"Three days ago I installed a R.E.M. program for your avatar, at your request of course. You wanted to see what it was like to dream and the genius Harper made it happen. But like everything, you can't have the good without the bad. And this, my friend, is the bad."   
  
"This is what's known as a nightmare, your subconscious using your fears against you. Making you believe that the things your afraid of most are real, are around you when they're not."  
  
"So I created this message to activate at a certain time during your nightmare. I wanted you to know that you'll never be alone, I will always be here for you when you need me most. Every time you have a nightmare it will activate this."   
  
"I'm not saying you won't have nightmares, I'm just saying that I'll be you wake-up call, because your R.E.M. program is timed and you can't shut it off until the end. When they get the scariest, nightmares wake us up, so I'm doing the same for you"  
  
He stood up, turned and walked into the blackness, calling back over his shoulder,  
  
"Time to wake up Rommie"  
  
. . .  
Her eyes opened slowly. She sat up, tears still wet on her cheeks. She smiled remembering Harpers message. The horror of the nightmare still hung in the air, but it was a fading memory.   
. . .  
It was early she wasn't supposed to wake for another hour. She did a quick check just to be sure. All her crew were on the ship, most sleeping.   
  
Dylan was in command when she walked in, he looked up from the flexi he'd been reading and smiled at her. Just to be sure, she took his wrist feeling his strong pulse under her fingers.   
  
"Is something wrong Rommie?" Dylan looked puzzled.  
  
She shook her head and smiled at him. It was just a dream.   
  
The End 


End file.
